TEST OF A RECOIL ION-SOURCE AT GANIL MEDIUM-ENERGY FACILITY

A recoil ion source, devoted to the production of very low energy mult icharged ion beams which are of interest for charge exchange experimen ts, has been designed and tested at the SME (medium energy facility) o f GANIL (heavy ion accelerator in Caen, France). The efficiency of SME beams for the production of high charge-states of argon recoil ions i s demonstrated (more than 10(4) Ar15+ ions/s obtained with a 300 nA 4. 7 MeV/A Xe39+ projectile ion beam). It is shown furthermore that these beams may be decelerated down to energies of some qeV without dramati c loss of intensity and quality.